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Contracts Keyed to Knapp
Allen v. Bissinger & Co
Facts
Notices of the Interstate Commerce Commission (Commission) pertaining to freight matters were sent to major shippers, including Bissinger & Co (D) by Allen (P), who was the official reporter of the Commission. Allen (P) also included in the notices sent to the major shippers, an offer for copies of the official reports of the hearings. Bissinger (D) responded to Allen’s (P) offer in writing, stating “We will be interested in your official report of the different changes in the handling of the freight and would ask you to put our name down for the copy of same”.Allen (P) thereby made available to Bissinger (D), a copy of the hearings up to the 17th of August and a copy of the official reports for some subsequent hearings in October. Few days after the receipt of these reports, Bissinger (D) informed Allen (P) that the reports were immaterial to him, asking Allen (P) to take back the reports. Bissinger’s (D) also offered to pay a reasonable charge to cover the cost of all the reports Allen (P) had sent to him.But the response Allen (P) gave Bissinger (D) was that the Commission could only accept the cancellation for reports prepared for hearings held after the 27th of September and not for reports for hearings held through the 27th of September, because a copy of the report for hearings up to that date had already been prepared. The copy of this report was made available to Bissinger (D) by Allen (P) in November at a cost of $1,047.50, which was the total amount for the 8,380 pages valued at 12.5cents, sent to Bissinger (D). Bissinger (D) however refused to pay this invoiced amount because of the number of pages it had received and the associated cost attached to each page of the report. Allen (P) defended this invoiced amount by informing Bissinger (D) that the per-page cost was set by the Commission and not by him, that the rate had been in force for 10 years and that he could not determine ahead of time, the extensity of the hearings and how the report would be.To recover the debt owed by Bissinger (D), Allen sued Bissinger & Co (D). Judgment was given in favor of Allen (P) by the trial court but the state’s highest court granted review.
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